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American opera thrives in old west boom town
by Heather Thorwald

Central City opera House, Cortesy of Central City Opera

In 1876, the small mining town of Central City aspired to be capital of the new state of Colorado. Although its mountainous location made it far from "central," the gold from its hills gave the town an importance beyond its size. Until its mines were tapped out in the 1880s, Central City was known as "the richest square mile on Earth."

Though it never became a mountain metropolis, Central City found another, even more unlikely distinction as a center for American opera. The Central City Opera House, built in 1878 and restored in the midst of the Great Depression, has hosted an annual summer festival since 1932. In its 69 years, Central City Opera has featured established stars and helped launch the careers of several significant American artists. The nation's fifth-oldest opera company has also long championed works by American composers, from Douglas Moore to Mark Adamo. Once the site of a gold rush, Central City has become a boom town for opera lovers.

From Buffalo Bill to Beverly Sills

The Central City Opera House was built not by one grand patron, but by an entire town of music lovers. Financed by contributions from rich and poor alike, the Central City Opera House opened in 1878. The grand new building hosted little opera, instead featuring popular variety acts such as Buffalo Bill and his Wild West Show. But soon, the mines played out and the fortunes of Central City and its Opera House dwindled.

Fortunately, in 1931, a group of civic-minded volunteers took on the monumental task of saving this piece of the Old West. By the summer of 1932, the Opera House was ready for a gala reopening. Legendary actress Lillian Gish opened the newly restored opera house with Camille, launching the annual tradition of summer festivals in Central City.

Directed by Broadway legend Robert Edmond Jones, the festival attracted top stars eager to spend a summer away from New York City in a charming Colorado mountain town. Opera debuted at the 1933 summer festival, with Gladys Swarthout and Richard Bonelli in The Merry Widow. Over the next two decades, the festival featured multiple appearances by Eleanor Steber, Jerome Hines, Regina Resnick, and other Metropolitan Opera regulars.

By now well established, Central City Opera took another step forward in the mid-1950s with its first world premiere. Ironically, the "Silver King" Horace Tabor, whose successful Leadville mines drove Central City's out of business, would prove a treasure to the town's opera company. The story of Tabor and his two wives became the inspiration for Douglas Moore's opera The Ballad of Baby Doe, which was given its world premiere by Central City Opera in 1956. The cast included Walter Cassel and Frances Bible as Horace and Augusta Tabor, roles they would reprise at New York City Opera and on the recording with Beverly Sills.

Sills herself made an appearance at Central City Opera in 1960, in a rare Aïda. The remarkable 1963 season featured four great American baritones: Justino Diaz, Norman Treigle, Sherrill Milnes, and a young Samuel Ramey in the chorus, making his very first appearance in an opera.

Ramey's start in Central City mirrors the career paths of many young American singers who found early opportunities with the company: Catherine Malfitano, Ashley Putnam, Mignon Dunn, Benita Valente, Tracey Welborn, Cynthia Lawrence, and Denyce Graves, to name a few. Like Lawrence and Graves, many of today's rising singers have spent summers in Central City in the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Artists Training Program. Founded in 1978 by Artistic Director Emeritus John Moriarty, the program has served as a national model and provided training for many notable young professionals such as Margaret Lattimore, Mary Mills, Emily Pulley, and Gregory Turay.

The 1978 season featured another successful commission from the company, this time Henry Mollicone's one-act cabaret opera, The Face on the Barroom Floor. Set in the historic Teller House Bar, located next door to the Central City Opera House, the opera is performed each summer by Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Apprentice Artists and is a staple of college operatic repertoire.

American Series Succeeds

Always a home to American opera (Carlisle Floyd's Of Mice and Men had its second production there in 1970), Central City Opera renewed its commitment to this body of work in 1996 with a new 40th anniversary production of The Ballad of Baby Doe. The company's American Series has continued under the leadership of General Director Pelham G. Pearce, featuring in recent seasons Floyd's Susannah, Robert Ward's The Crucible, Kurt Weill's Street Scene, and Leonard Bernstein's Candide. In 2001, the company will present a regional premiere of Mark Adamo's Little Women.

Baby Doe (Dolores Wilson) marries Horace Tabor (Walter Cassel) in the world premiere production of The Ballad of Baby Doe (1956). Courtesy of Central City Opera®

Central City Opera has ended its longstanding tradition of performing exclusively in English (La Bohème will be performed in Italian in 2001, as was LA TRAVIATA in 2000), but its commitment to English-language opera - by both American and British composers - continues. The 2001 season features the first production by a North American company of Benjamin Britten's GLORIANA, heralding a more adventurous approach to repertoire and a determination to recapture Central City Opera's place among the leading summer opera festivals.

"We're very conscious of our role in American opera over the last seven decades," Pearce said. "Our decision to present Adamo's Little Women is based not only on its artistic merits, but also on our desire to support new works by American composers. That said, it's truly a wonderful piece, and its success bodes well for the direction of opera in this country."

Future seasons at Central City Opera will incorporate American works through second or subsequent productions of recent premieres, new productions of neglected works, and possible world premieres of new commissions. Pearce says American opera has a permanent home in Central City.

"With only 550 seats in our house, we can present these intimate, theatrical works particularly well," Pearce said. "Looking back on our history, and where we're heading, it makes sense for us to stage American operas. And, thankfully, we have more and more excellent works to choose from."